This super bug is very prevelant in many Irish and British hospitals and in 2005 over 250 people are reported to have died from it while in hospitals being treated for other illnesses. Fatalities have increased every year since it was discovered and since 2003 were running at nearly a 1,000 annually, according to British Government reports.

The US findings of a report which were presented to the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America found that just touching a keyboard is enough to pick up the bacteria and pass it onto a patient. The researchers also found that cleaning IT equipment with soap and water was not enough to remove the bacteria.The only way to clear the infection from the keyboards, according to a report from the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago who carried out a study, was to rinse the keyboard with disinfectant."A computer keyboard is like any other surface in a hospital and has to be sterilised according to the report.

Anyone with HIV got any experience of picking it up or any ideas of any precautions I could take when visiting an infected hospital?

Tks

Rob

Bartro:
I worked in a facility that cared for MRSA patients. Gloves, gowns and masks were required to enter the rooms. All eating utensils, plates and the like were disposable and sent out with other hazardous materials for disposal. Any durable equipment was dedicated to that room and had to be sanitized with a quaternary disinfectant before it could be used again. This is a nasty bug. I don't recall any patients surviving it.

J.R.E.:
Hello,

My only experience, is that we have had MRSA in our nursing home facility, at differant times. Its a very serious bug. While at that time,I was involved only in maintenance, I sometimes was refused admission into the room for a routine call, And if I did enter I had to keep myself protected. Regulations.As Stated by Bartro, its a very serious bug.

Ray

JohnOso:
This CAN be a serious bug depending on which strain of bacteria you get. It can spread quite quickly, but it usually can be treated successfully. It's not uniformly fatal -- hell, i'm living proof of that.

Last summer (pre-diagnosis) I got a rather large golf-ball abscess on my thigh. I'm not sure where I got it ( I work in a ICU and I also was going to the gym), but I went to the ER to get an I & D (incision and drainage) of the nasty-looking creature.

Long story short, I ended up in the hospital because the infection was still spreading down my leg (down to my knee), so I went to the hospital IMMEDIATELY and had surgery to take a chunk of my thigh out. Of course it turned out to be MRSA. There's still quite a serious-looking gash on my left thigh to remind me. I had to take Bactrim, Rifampin and some mega-expensive antibiotic (Linezolid/Zyvox -- $75 for each pill!!!) and was off work for nearly 3 months. Not to mention the "pleasure" of packing the wound with gauze every 12 hours (I could see my thigh muscle moving when I looked into the wound -- talk about nasty!).

As for precautions: WASH YOUR HANDS! At our hospital, anyone on contact precautions (includes MRSA) has instructions on the door for strict handwashing BEFORE and AFTER visiting a patient, and gloves and gown if you're even thinking about getting close to someone infected. Unfortunately if you're in the hospital, you're more or less at the mercy of your healthcare workers also washing their hands.

Staph aureus (the "SA" in MRSA, actually methicillin-resistant Staph aureus) lives everywhere and is a normal bacteria on the outside of the skin. The heavy use (or rather "overuse") of antibiotics has selected out strains which have become resistant to "normal" antibiotics ( similar to HIV becoming resistant to meds).

Unless you absolutely have to be in a hospital, I'd steer clear of the place!

John's Rant: It annoys the living fuck out of me to see these parents bring young children to the hospital and whine about letting them see grandma (while letting them play all over the floors). I wouldn't let a child get out of the car at a hospital, let alone coming into that nasty place!) And yes, ALL hospitals are infected with MRSA.

Take care,John (who washed his hands three times while typing this) ;)

sdcabincrew74:
Had an abcess on my butt check actually, no clue where it came from since I shower at least twice a day and do not work in the medical field. Anywho, had it drained, however, it was not MRSA but it took a couple days to find that our and in the mean time I had literally scared the crap out of myself. Never want that!!!